40-hour wait for data recovery
DATAPAC has announced the results of a new survey which reveals that Irish businesses expect to wait an average of 40 hours to recover mission critical data that has been lost.
The survey of 163 IT professionals in Ireland looked at how organisations are managing the increasing demands placed on their technology infrastructures and business continuity systems.
Datapac’s research found that the amount of data being stored by organisations has increased by an average of 37 per cent over the past year. Despite this rapid growth in data volumes, 26 per cent of Irish businesses surveyed admit they never carry out disaster recovery tests to ensure their data back-ups are recoverable.
Karen O’Connor, general manager service delivery, Datapac, said the average length of time to recover mission critical data is unacceptably long at 40 hours.
‘Delays of this magnitude will cause significant financial and reputational damage for most businesses in Ireland. Another worrying finding is that more than a quarter of businesses never carry our tests on their disaster recovery capabilities.
‘One of the big issues for Irish IT departments is that they are struggling to add value to their organisation while consistently firefighting and dealing with reactive low-level IT incidents.
‘ They really need to prioritise what’s most important to their business and give this the time and focus it deserves. With ongoing improvements in automation and managed service delivery, this presents a great opportunity for Irish organisation have the freedom to innovate and add real value to their businesses.’
The survey also looked at the growing demands being placed on in-house technical resources by changing ways of working. Almost one third (32 per cent) of Irish businesses don’t have technology platforms and support solutions in place to effectively manage mobile working, despite 76 per cent saying that mobile working is becoming more prevalent in their businesses. In further analysis of IT resourcing and time management, the survey found that IT professionals spend 35 per cent of their time managing day-to-day reactive incidents such as fixing IT hardware, software and printers. Three quarters (75 per cent) of those surveyed believe that the amount of time their IT department spends tacking low-level reactive incidents is compromising their ability to add value to their organisations. Eighty per cent of Irish organisations are outsourcing the management and support of some ICT services, such as back-up, storage, security and print, to external managed service providers. The top three drivers for availing of managed services are limited IT resources (51 per cent), ensuring greater security and compliance (44 per cent) and cost savings (44 per cent). Irish businesses are allocating an average of 28 per cent of their annual IT budgets to managed service providers. A new Bachelor of Science course in Brewing and Distilling will be introduced to IT Carlow in September 2017.
The first of its kind in Ireland, the four-year course has been two years in the making by the institute. It will provide learners with an opportunity to study both brewing and distilling and the curriculum includes: brewing biochemistry, microbiology, brewery process control, fermentation science, quality assurance, distillation theory, marketing and industrial work experience.
Alongside the degree course, CPD courses will be introduced including yeast biology, malting and brewing raw materials, the brewing process, distillation and distilled spirits production and post distillation downstream processing. These will commence in September 2016.
‘I would be hugely supportive of (this initiative). From the other end of the process, apart from the technical piece, it is great to see modules looking at marketing, management and new product development included in the programme,’ said Drinks Manager at Bord Bia Denise Murphy.